The World Dragon's Heir

Prince Russel came over from his office in the banking building just after dinner, another deliberate choice to avoid having anything directly to do with the two Barons outside of business.

They had come all this way, and they would be considered based on the merits of their loan application, as the agreement had stated.

But that didn’t mean that the Royals weren’t holding a grudge against their entire bloodline.

Dominic realized that it was equivalent to holding them responsible for things that their crazy Uncle did, as the direct lineage of a traitor were all executed, as were any other family members known to have supported and assisted their treason.

So, these men were not guilty of the crime, but they were also not truly deemed worthy of the titles they inherited. It was simply too much of a threat to the other Nobles to start stripping an extended lineage of their titles.

For their part, the Barons were taking it rather well, and they were gracious with the other Barons who had come for dinner at the Manor.

Once the Prince arrived, it was time for work, and they were led off to their rooms at the bank building, which looked so much better now that Dominic had the trolls grow a [Wall of Brambles] all over it. That left Dominic with Baron Keith and Billy Bob, both of whom were in an excellent mood.

“I’m sure that you have a guess as to why we’re here today, and you’re at least half wrong.

Yes, we do want some of those biplanes. But mostly we’re here for another reason. We did the math on what Wistover is sending to Dagos, and what the Duchy is selling to the King. And that raised a concern that we’re not certain anyone has raised yet.

The King is happy to keep his word and continue to exempt the Duchy from taxes, in exchange for what they’re paying out in repair funds.

However, that’s putting the other Nobles in a tight spot.

Wistover is getting ahead of everyone else at a rapid pace. All of Stansia Province is doing alright, but Wistover especially is way ahead. We had a visitor the other day, a travelling Baron simply passing through on his way back from Witheton.

He was quite impressed with the work that we’ve done on the road toward Lympsbury, but seeing the magitech vehicles with the Knight patrols, then the tractors in every field, the nature magic enhanced crops, and everything else, was inciting a lot of jealousy.

He didn’t find much purchase with us, as we make out very well from this arrangement. However, once he gets home he’s going to find a much more sympathetic audience for an elaborated version of the story.

Given a season or two, the King will be under pressure from the other Nobles to make us share the wealth.

Either to share the blueprints for everything that’s making us money, or demands that some of our more talented commoners should move. They won’t say right out that they want a share of our wealth confiscated and shipped to them, but that’s the implication that they’ll be sharing around as they complain.”

Dominic sighed. “I already knew that the other Nobles were going to be jealous, and that’s why we’ve been working so hard with the Guild to get the goods we’re making shipped all over the country.

That’s not really going to make them feel better about our wealth, though is it?”

“I’m glad that you understand the issue.

What we’re thinking is that we should propose to the other Barons that we start refusing the tax credits. Ask the King to hold them in the treasury as an emergency fund.

It is Noble speak for a gift to the crown.

But if we’re paying our fair share, when everyone knows that we’ve more than earned our exemption, that should get us past the first years of envy.

Eventually, they will forget and start to get jealous again, but that is years in the future, and by then they will have more than enough to be jealous of. If we can account for tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of gold coins a year in extra transfers to the Crown, which will reduce the burden on everyone else, it will take time before they’re willing to bite the hand that feeds them.”

Dominic sighed. “You’re likely right. I have been dreading the day when we’re going to have to start asking the Barons for tax money.

They’re just getting settled, and they’re not even through their first full year here.

The dry season crop is usually much better than the wet season crop here. So, by the time that they have that in the silos, most of the Baronies should be in good shape. After that, we might be able to discuss something.”

The two Barons smiled. “Actually, we’re not planning to expand the silos any more than we already did. We’re at three years of domestic use in storage. Some of that, like the root vegetables, will have to be shipped out this year, while the grain crops can keep for longer.

No matter how good the crops are, we’ve got too much.

It’s a strange position to be in, with so much food that we’re struggling to get enough caravans here to sell it all. The rotating portal days have been good for us, but we still need more caravans to move the product.

We talked to Rill, and he’s hired some full-time merchants for the portal days. They’ll do nothing but move food to the various major cities.

It’s the only way that we could think of to keep our crop prices up, since we can’t ask the Trolls to stop blessing the land. They seem to think that a bad crop is an insult to the goats.

Why that is more important than their own hunger, I don’t know.

But that’s how it is, so we’re going to struggle to move the crop. And as it just so happens, the King accepts tax payments in essential goods…”

Dominic smiled. “And you think that we should dump all our extra crops on him as tax payment once the silos are full?”

“Your words, not mine, Your Grace.”